Daily Palin Headliners

I've been out of town this Labor Day weekend, so when I came back to start looking into Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, I found that there was a lot of information on Palin--and none of it is very flattering. So I'm creating a Daily Headliner's list of Sarah Palin stories through the news and blog sites. Americablog has a pretty good list of Sarah Palin stories here.

John McCain's 'Alaska First' Problem: Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, whose motto is "Alaska First, Alaska First Always." The leaders of the Alaska Independence Party are active participants in a movement to secede from the United States. Palin welcomed the Alaskan Independence Party members at their political party convention in March. From the JedReport:



Update:Mother Jones is now reporting that the key source in reporting the stories about Palin and the AIP has backed off his account in an interview with Mother Jones. Talking Points Memo is now reporting that Palin's husband, Todd Palin, was registered as a member of the AIP from October 1995 to July 2002, with a short period of a few months in 2000, when Todd Palin changed his registration to undeclared. The American Independence Party did hold their 1994 convention in Wasilla, where Palin was a city council member at that time. But there are no confirmed reports of whether Sarah Palin, or her husband Todd, actually attended the 1994 AIP convention. Sarah Palin did welcome the AIP members to their convention in March of this year.

Palin's Small Alaska Town Secured Big Federal Funds: Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure $27 million in federal earmarks for the town of Wasilla, of which she was a mayor in 1996.

New York Times story on McCain's vetting disaster of Sarah Palin.

Palin scandal in controversial firing of family member: The Alaskan legislature voted to spend up to $100,000 to investigate Governor Sara Palin's controversial firing of a former state Public Safety Commissioner for failing to dismiss an Alaska state police officer involved in a divorce from Palin's sister.

Palin hired lawyer to represent Palin in firing controversy: Alaskan governor Sarah Palin has hired a private attorney to represent her in the Alaskan legislature's investigation of her role in the firing of her public safety commissioner.

CNN: Tucker Bounds On Palin Foreign Policy Experience; CNN just rips Tucker Bounds apart on Sarah Palin's lack of foreign policy experience.



Alaskan National Guard general says Palin played no part in Alaska's national defense activities: Major General Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaskan National Guard said that Palin played "no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations."

McCain campaign reports that Palin's 17-year-old-daughter is pregnant: The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, as according to a statement released by the McCain campaign. Senior McCain campaign officials said that John McCain knew of Palin's daughters pregnancy, even before he selected Palin as his running mate.

Palin decides to fly from Texas to Alaska as she was about to give birth to her fifth child: In April, 2008, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin was at an energy conference in Texas, when she started experiencing signs of early labor. She was not due for another month. Palin consulted with her doctor, and decided to travel back to Alaska (a nine-hour trip) rather than stay in Texas to deliver her baby. Palin's water broke en route to Alaska. Even after a stopover in Seattle, Palin decided to continue on to Alaska, where she gave birth to her fifth child, Trig, who is diagnosed with Down's Syndrome. Obstetricians and gynecologists warn that, when a pregnant woman's water breaks, she should go to a hospital immediately because of the risk of infection, and some airlines have a policies of prohibiting pregnant women from flying during their last four weeks of pregnancies.

Former Palin staffer claims Palin is "not qualified" for being vice president: Former Palin staffer Larry Persily, who worked as Governor Palin's congressional liaison in Washington, said that Palin is "not qualified" to be the Republican vice presidential candidate for John McCain's ticket. ``She's not qualified, she doesn't have the judgment, to be next in line to the president of the United States,'' said Persily, who said in a phone interview to Bloomberg reporters.

Palin lied about "Bridge to Nowhere" stance: When John McCain introduced Sarah Palin as his running mate, Palin claimed that she told Congress, "Thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere," referring to the Ketchikan's Gravina Island bridge. However in 2006, Palin supported the construction of the bridge, saying it was "essential" for Ketchikan's prosperity. "OK, you've got Valley trash standing here in the middle of nowhere," Palin said to an account in the Ketchikan Daily News. "I think we're going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project." Right after she became governor, Palin pulled the plug on the bridge, moving the money to other projects. One more interesting detail is that Palin's flip-flop announcement on the bridge came just a month after John McCain slammed the Ketchikan bridge for taking money that could have been used to strengthen other bridges in the U.S., some like the bridge that collapsed in Minnesota.

Christian Broadcast Network reports Sarah Palin signed "Christian Heritage Week" proclamation in Alaska in October, 2007.

John McCain's Wandering Eyes:



GOP VP pick Sarah Palin laughs at cancer surviving senator being called a "bitch:" This is via YouTube, "Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin laughs as cancer survivor Senator Lyda Green of the Alaska State Senate is called a "bitch" and a "cancer" on "The Bob and Mark Show", a radio show on KWHL in Alaska." Listen:



Choice stuns state politicians: McCain's choice of Sarah Palin stunned Alaskan state politicians. State Senate President Lyda Green thought it was a joke, when someone called her at 6 a.m. to deliver the news. "She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Green. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?" Former House Speaker Gail Phillips was shocked when she heard the news, saying "This can't be happening, because his [John McCain's] advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out." Both Green and Phillips are Republicans.

Sarah Palin is clueless on the Iraq war: Sarah Palin doesn't know what "the plan" is for ending the Iraq war. In both a Time interview and this YouTube interview, Palin thinks that more oil drilling will help resolve the U.S. war in Iraq:



McCain aids say McCain will not die in office, and Palin is not ready to become commander-in-chief: McCain campaign adviser Charlie Black said that Sarah Palin is "going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long.”

John McCain doesn't even know Sarah Palin: McCain only met Palin once or twice. From the JedReport;



Governor Sarah Palin will sue the listing of polar bears as a threatened species: Alaskan governor Sarah Palin claimed that the state will sue "to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species," in this May 22, 2008 Anchorage Daily News story. Palin argued that there was not enough evidence to support the listing, and that climate models supporting global warming and the melting of the sea ice, which is the habitat for polar bears during the summers, are unreliable.

Sarah Palin is not sure what a vice president does. This is from the Jedreport:



Palin's lobbyist has Abramoff ties: The Washington Post is reporting that, while Mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired lobbyist Steven Silver to help win federal earmarks for Wasilla. However, according to Senate lobbying disclosure reports acquired by TPM Muckraker, 'From 2002 to 2004 Silver listed as a client Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. On Greenberg's behalf, Silver lobbied the federal government on "issues relating to Indian/Native American policy," "exploration for oil and gas" and "legislation relating to gaming issues" -- the very issues that Abramoff headed up for Greenberg at the time. In other words, Silver appears to have been a part of "Team Abramoff."'

Looking at these news stories over the past three days tells me that Sarah Palin is not only unqualified to become the Vice President of the United States, but also that she is one wacked-out, insane lady. She is not fit for office. What is even more astonishing is that John McCain is also not fit for the Oval Office, considering just how impulsive McCain was in rushing into this choice of Palin before completely vetting Palin as a potential choice. The McCain campaign did not completely investigate Palin before making the selection, and the big news that took place over Labor Day weekend was all the Palin scandals and skeletons to come up and show the American people just how unqualified Palin is for the office. If John McCain made a bad, impulsive choice in selecting Palin for his running mate, just what other bad, impulsive choices will John McCain make as president?